Damn. I know the feeling, though at least in my case the scars are on the inside, literally… as in I have scarred lung tissue from straining to breathe after a fridge I was helping my mother move fell on me. My dad refused to help move it because I was “being a fucking crybaby”and was “no son of [his]”. I was around 8 or so, helping my mother move a refrigerator because his lazy ass wouldn’t.

At least I learned how NOT to parent, and so far my kidlet is fucking awesome.

Mine didn’t hate me. My mom loved me, although she wasn’t very good at listening, but she tried, most of the time. I’m not really sure how my dad felt about me, but I’m sure it wasn’t the. Indifference, impatience, disdain, might have been something along those line…

Stepmother didn’t like us kids much, was deliberately cruel to me in particular. Very emotionally abusive. Got angry I was ‘wasting my time’ reading when I should have been doing something ‘productive’ instead. Like digging her a goddamn garden bed in 110-degree heat. Routinely told me what a failure I would be, and deliberately sabotaged my first three girlfriends, just because she could.

sometimes the POS can be very canny about picking their moments. Also, sometimes, the remaining parent will put up with it because ‘it’s a phase’, ‘they’ll work through it’, or ‘she didn’t mean it’. And then it’s too late.

They didn’t take my BS for a moment. They weren’t impressed by a lot of stuff I did (but that is to be expected from parents once they’d changed your diapers for long enough) My father was an alcoholic, and he did a lot of things I could hate him for, but he was sick and provided for us and tried to give us good things and good experiences even then.

They were flawed and imperfect, and I wouldn’t trade them for any two people in the world.

I have a feeling that Carlos’ dad at one point made it clear to everyone that he(Carlos) had ruined some major family event. Could be wrong, but that is my gut feeling, and I’ve known about parents who sink to that level….

Wow. No, I didn’t expect that either. Well done! It’s a story that should be told. I’m very fortunate to have had parents who were very very good, and loving. Sisters, on the other hand… Families are the source of so much drama, so much pain, as well as the default belief of happiness too.
By the way, I like Carlos’ face! It’s incredibly expressive – obviously he’s very upset now, but it’s a face with a lot of character.

You know, at first I thought “Kind of a weird direction to go in and to have that be the reason you’re upset at the joke at game night.” But no, that’s the thing. This kind of thing follows you for LIFE, and it follows you EVERYWHERE. You can find reason in everything to draw it back, especially when it traumatizes you enough.

So good on you Brian. You’re taking the story to very interesting places, I’m excited to keep reading.

That… feels familiar. I mean, my father didn’t hate me, according to others… but… he oscillated between emotionally abusive and emotionally neglectful and our manifestations of autism collided in ways that tended to lead to blow-ups, especially with that constant fear and tension about setting him off or saying something that would unexpectedly upset him.

… To give some idea… he was so inattentive and unknowledgeable about me, he thought I was a teen well into my 20s, and his reaction to my being trans was… bad. Not violent, but ugly and mean and dismissive. I knew it would be, which is why I only came out to Mom, but Mom (who I’ve since realized was also an emotionally abusive person) outed me to him, which… is one of the major reasons I’m in my 30s and still barely starting on transition, despite realizing somewhere in the 12-to-14 range.